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was brought to the town by means of a conduit, from 
a spring at a league and a half distance; but when the 
French, during their last expedition to Egypt, invested 
the place, they cut off the aqueduct, which the Turkish 
government has never thought fit to re-establish. The 
inhabitants, therefore, from that time have been obliged 
to drink the water of the wells, which is saturated with 
selenite, and as heavy as lead. 
From all that I saw and heard of Djezzar Pacha, 
it appears that nature had endowed him with a good 
head; but he was a Mameluke without any other edu- 
cation than that of arms, and entirely led away by his 
passions, which carried him alternately into the extremes 
of good and evil, without ever permitting him to ob- 
serve a just medium. 
The reigning Pacha, named Soliman, had been a 
Mameluke of Djezzar; he appeared to me to be a just 
man, with an excellent heart, full of moderation, an 
agreeable conversation, a pleasing figure, and amiable 
manners. His first minister is a Jew, who passeisfor a 
man of the greatest merit. 
The administrator of the custom-house is also a Jew, 
who embraced the Mussulman faith, and who had just 
been the butt of a singular piece of mystification. 
A few days before my arrival, different persons had 
perceived that during several nights a great many stones 
fell upon the roof of the administrator's house, and no 
one could discover from whence they eame. Several 
centinels were placed upon the roof and round the 
house, but the stones continued to fall as usual. 
I was lodged in the very next house to the adminis- 
trator's, and questioned some of the soldiers, who pre- 
sented me with some of the stones, which were of the 
common calcareous kind. It was not very difficult to 
